Chapter 4 – The Meaning of one’s name
In my eyes one could see that there was a reflection of a massive wall in it.
The walls were as high as 10 meters with scratches all over it, some of them were from more than a hundred years ago.
Merchants, Mercenaries and all kinds of people coming and going from the Town.
“I never saw so many people.”
There were more than hundreds of them.
The Gate to the Town was open.
Guards stood on standby next to the gate, if any help was needed.
As I walked through the Gate, I glazed all over the unfamiliar place, not a word leaving my mouth.
“Hey, you there!”
A guard rushed towards me.
“Are you okay?”
I wasn´t a very social person so I never interacted with people much, and I blurted out…
“Are you okay?”
The Guard stood there in confused and questioning himself.
“Yeah, that is what I asked you.”
I just realized that out of shock I blurted out exactly the same words he had asked me.
“I´m doing alright, why are you asking?”
The Guard standing in front of me confused.
“I mean you are covered in blood.”
“Yes, I am, what about it?”
“Are you hurt anywhere”
“No, it´s not my blood”, I said while smiling brightly at the confused guard.
Fuck!!!
I said that in the most suspicious way possible.
He won´t think I´m some kind of murderer, right
It really isn´t my blood, the Thunder hound blood splashed onto me while I struck it´s stomach.
He is not going to throw me into a prison and let me rot away there, right?
Goodbye my second chance at life….
As I kept fading away into to the afterlife, the guard suddenly spoke up.
“Sigh…That is good to hear. I thought another adventurer would die out there.”
Adventurer? Is that what he thinks I´m?
With my skinny build?
What an innocent boy.
“By the way my name is Henrick, what is your name Adventurer?”
“My name is ………..., nice to meet you.” `
I should probably ask him about information about the world.
He seems nice and innocent, so I doubt he would be suspicious of me.
“You see I had an accident not long ago and I hit my head really hard so I lost some of my memories a while ago, could you answer some of my questions.?
“Of course, I´m at your service.”
He fell for it.
“In which Town and Kingdom are we right now?”
“Right now, we are in a town named Lumenvall, it is located in the Kingdom of Valandor, a nation in the East of the continent known for its unique environment and Dungeons.”
“There are four other kingdoms, Eldoria in the west, a nation with ancient Magic and Sword Arts, Thaloria in the south is a Nation where most demi humans reside, elf’s, dwarfs and other beings, Drakoria in the north is the Land of Dragons, it is said that the most powerful dargons reside there.”
There are Five?
I only remember writing about four kingdoms.
“And the last kingdom?”
“You should never mention the fifth nation!”
“And why is that”
“Some say the fifth Kingdom is cursed, it one day just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the continent with a strange building in the middle of it, Mystical beings different from normal Monsters reside in that kingdom.
Some people also say they saw people living there on the land, but the ones that saw the people of the mysterious land always ended up dying in strange ways and that is why everyone says it is a cursed Land.
We call that Kingdom- Nymeris.”
Five kingdoms? And a newly appeared cursed kingdom?
After hearing the explanation of the four kingdoms, Valandor-East- the land of Dungeons, Eldoria-West- the Land of ancient Magic&Swords, Thaloria- South- the land of demi humans, Drakoria-North-the land of dragons.
I am sure that this is indeed the novel I wrote.
But a fifth kingdom?
Something must have changed.
I will ask him about the Protagonist of my novel.
The name of my Protagonist….
“Do you know about a hero named Kurozai?”
“A hero, Kurozai? No, I don´t know of a hero with that name”
“But….”
“You know something?”
“There are some Legends about a fallen hero named Kurozai, are you talking about him?”
“Fallen Hero?”
But that only happened at the end of my Novel.
“How many years ago was this?”
“These legends are older than thousands of years”
“Thousands of years…...so much time passed?”
“But then…...”
“I need to find out what happened to him!”
“Hmmm, some people say he died after his Rampage, of killing half the continent and other say he still lives somewhere in a state between Life and Death.
I don´t really know anything else.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Thank you very much, you helped me a lot.
Could you tell me where I can find the adventurer Guild?”
“Yes, sure. You just need to follow the road; you will see the sign if you go along the main road.”
“I will repay this favor one day, Henrick!”
As I walked through the along the road, the sun shining brightly down on us, people laughing and drinking happily together, families walking hand in hand on the road.
“The kingdom of Valandor seems like a nice place.”
…
“So, in the end he was named a fallen hero?”
“Truly the most unbefitting title for that man…”
“All this is because of me….”
In the far I see a big Mansion, at the end of the road.
On the side of the roads, Lanterns powered with magical devices, on both sides.
On the right side of the road there was a sign saying….
“Adventurer Guild of Lumenvall”
This should be the place.
The building is massive and well built, almost as massive as the mansion at the end of the road.
Just looking at it from the outside it feels intimidating.
“I will need to create some Identity card, so this is the best place for it”
I opened the door to the guild.
Adventures everywhere my eyes could see, forming parties, taking on quest´s, laughing and drinking together.
I walked up to the reception.
“Hello, I would like to register as an Adventurer please.”
“Yes of course, you will need to fill out this paper.”
I was welcomed with a warm and gentle smile, a woman in her early twenties, with brown long hair reaching her shoulders, her uniform green and white.
She handed me a forum with different questions about me.
But I only had one thing in mind….
“Hmmmm…So there truly are only receptionist girls at guilds. What an ongoing trope of Isekai´s.”
“Sir, did you say something?”
“Oh, I was only mesmerized by your outstanding beauty miss”
…
“So, I need to fill these out right?”
Lucky me I can read it.
Sometimes you are a useful system, but you could shut your mouth more frequently.
System-
I will shut your mouth if you keep on nagging me.
And how will you do that?
System-
You will know when the time comes hahahahahahah…….
…
I feel like I did something I shouldn´t have.
I looked at the paper and there were mostly only the simplest of questions.
Personal skills…?
I only have one personal skill, Inner Qi application.
The skills of the Rings aren´t my personal skills, those are skills of external objects, so I won´t include them.
Name…... (…..)
Age…. I don´t really know how old this body is but it seems rather young so I will write 16, before I got here, I was 22, but nobody would believe me, so this is better.
Affiliated kingdom-
“Mhm… Miss Receptionist girl I don´t have an affiliated kingdom, should I just leave the question blank?”
My head, which was looking down on the paper, shifted towards the Receptionist girl.
“Ehm…are you okay?”
Her head fully flushed red and almost steaming.
“What up with her?”
Is it because of what I said earlier?
“Oh, I was only mesmerized by your outstanding beauty miss”
…
That must be it…
She surely thought that I was hitting on her.
Fuck…...
The girl answered in a quiet voice.
“You don´t need to fill that out…...”
“Okay…”
Why am I feeling embarrassed about this, if I am the one that said that….
After a while of silence….
“Here I filled everything out”
She took a look at the paper at said, “You only have one skill, Inner Qi application, is that right?”
“Yes, that is right.”
“Normally people have more than one skill, to be able to do all kinds of jobs, but if you only have one, I can only give you the lowest rank, but if you want to take a test to evaluate your skills, you may be able to get a higher rank, but there is a fee for the test.”
I am broke, I don´t have any money right now…...
“So what ranks are there and what would I get?”
“There are Six Ranks, S Class to E class, (S, A, B, C, D, E) with E rank being the lowest, that is were you rank. You can raise you rank through Quests or personal Missions.”
“Oh, so that´s how it is.”
Exactly as I wrote in my Novel, so not everything has changed over the years.
“Sir this is Identity card, it has all the information you provided us on it.”
She gave me an Iron Token in my Hand, with an tree on it.
“Thank you very much.”
This should be the Quest board, there are mostly only missions for C class and above.
There are hardly any good ones for E ranks.
“Sigh… Why is live so difficult?”
I should take some easy ones.
-Hunt 5 Shadow Hounds
Reward: 5 silver/ 1 per head
Notice: They reside in the forest of shadows, you can hunt more if you want, I just need the Materials that come from the 5 Hounds, but if you get me more, I don´t mind that, some if the Shadow Hounds parts are really valuable for my current project I´m working on right now.
Hmmm, I will take this.
But did the only E rank Quest need to be a hunt for a Hound again, just after overcoming that Thunderhound, I need to hunt a Shadow Hounds?
I took the Quest off the board and headed towards my destination, the forest where the Shadow Hounds reside or so he said, but why don´t I find a single one?
If I think about it, why wouldn´t any take this quest.
And everyone gave me a side eye the moment I took the quest, they must have known something….
Whatever I am already here so I can search for a little longer.
I searched diligently for hours but I still couldn´t find any.
“Sigh…. I give up.”
As I was preparing to leave a felt a familiar energy coming from deeper in the forest.
This Energy fells familiar, but also kind of different than before at the Abyss Dungeon, it feels weaker yet appetizing.
My body was drawn to this mysterious energy, it was as if the Abyss within me wanted to devour it….
If the powers I gained are drawn to this energy, I should probably check this out.
As I slowly approached the shadow-like energy as did my desire to devour it increase.
And I got nearer and nearer until it appeared…
An otherworldly being, darker than Shadows itself, killing intent coming from its eyes, eyes filled with the color red.
A new feeling overwhelming me from within…
Fear?
Excitement?
No…
Killing intent from within overwhelmed me.
It wasn´t that I wanted to kill this Shadow, but the power residing within me.
The two powers crashing against each other I felt it from both sides.
The resentment, the sorrow….
The Shadow Hound covered itself in the darkest of shadows, its eyes sparking fiercely, fiercer than before, it had released what resides within me and its intent to kill me only grow stronger after each falling leaf.
Withered leaves falling, corrupted by the shadows before me, trees turning darker and darker, no Life was able to escape these shadows.
“You have no right to wield its power”, a deep voice from the void said.
“I shall take the power to its rightful owner; I will grant you the mercy of death…”
“Where did this voice come from?”
A person covered in shadow appeared in the shadows of the Shadow Hound, floating behind it.
This presence…. I feel the need to kill it, not rather something within me.
“I shall grant you the power to kill this insignificant life form, heed my call Shadow Hound, kill everyone in your way.”
“I shall take my leave now”
Purple lightning covering the sky, emitted by the Shadow Hound, no is that even a shadow hound anymore?
System-
The Shadow hound has undergone an evolution, its strength far exceeds the power of a E rank adventurer. You should get away this instance….
“Hey even you are worried about me now, that’s new, have you finally fallen for my charms?
I said I will face everything head on and not run away anymore, this alone is my only reason for living, if I throw away this last bit to, there will be nothing left of me….
So, I´m thankful for you worrying about me, but I need to do this, even if it cost me my life. It doesn´t matter what the outcome is as long as I tried with my everything.”
System-
But…...fine.
“Sigh….
Let´s do this
right now,
right here
you and me
until death.
Come at me you damn puppy!!!!”
The evolved Shadow, covered in darkness as high as the trees reach, reeking as if death was approaching.
Dashing towards me with the intent of devouring me.
“Hehe… So, you feel the same way little puppy, so you to want to devour me?
Let´s see who is going to come out on top?”
REALESE “INNER QI”
My inner Qi covered in the colors blue burst out of me, Strengthening each muscle fiber in my body to its limit.
HAAAHHHHHHHH
The Atmosphere began to darken, to powers of similar origins colliding with each other, clashing for victory or defeat.
Trees being bent by the Powers released.
I took the first stance, I went into position, my legs anchored to the ground by the pressure.
As the Shadow approached me, with the eyes of a murderer.
As I accumulated the Power, I released from within myself, the Shadow got near me in an instance.
“Here I come puppy, prepare for your death!”
As we looked into each other’s eyes, I felt the sorrow within it.
As we faced each other face to face, it was as if I understood it perfectly.
Punch after punch, crawls after crawls
Bite after bite
As we exchanged our fists and paws, we started to understand each other’s hatred, the Abyss and the Shadow.
They were originally one and the same, but after that had happened the one had split into two, one searching for forgiveness and one reaching for revenge against itself.
As the blood of the two lowly beings mixed, both sides remembered their goal, and overcome with anger.
I felt a hatred from deep within me, the Abyss within me started to awaken, so I felt the Shadow carving for victory. It felt as if I was a puppet being controlled by gods as their tool for revenge…
As the Shadow Hound and I screamed in pain towards each other I gathered all my last energy, as I gathered my left overpowers with my Abyssal Arts the power within me calmed down, something within me started to suppress the rage of the Abyss.
“Don´t get mixed up in my own fight, I am fighting for myself and not for you. Don´t try to mix your feelings with mine. I´m not some lowly puppet to be controlled…. I am …… SHINE KAGE you Bastards don´t you ever forget that!
My Name bears the meaning of Hope, I am a light born in the shadows, a Light that shines in the darkest of shadows, I am the Light within the Shadows, I´m the one that will devour all darkest in the world!”
System-
First title gained “The Light within the Shadows “.
Gain – 10% more power when fighting against darkness.
Come at me with all you have little puppy!!!
I strike and strike and strike and strike, until my Fists began swimming in a sea of blood.
The Shadow Hound forsake its defense and was only concerned to attack me now.
As I hit it with all my might, it bit my hand, scratched my body all over, as it devoured me.
Screaming in pain, I started devouring the Shadow within me.
As I placed my Hand on the Beast…
“DEVOUR”
The Shadow began flowing into the Rings of the Abyss, absorbing the life power of the Shadow Hound, the shadows itself trembled at the sight of the Abyss.
The Shadow Hound began reverting back into its original form, leaving all the mysterious powers of that behind.
System-
The Abyss within you grows +3
Your cultivation increased by 5
Level up
Level up
You are now able to distribute your stats.
Available stats 8.
Sigh…. this was close.
Too close…
System-
Thank God you are alright, congratulations on slaying the lowest class of monster, although I said that you should run away, I always believed in you no doubt :).
“Haha, really? I feel like someone is lying, but at least you were concerned for my health this time at least. That feels like progress in our relationship, right?”
System-
Don´t get the wrong idea, got it?
“Oh my, I got a private Tsundere system all for myself, how lucky I am.”
System-
Don´t joke around with me!
“ I am not joking thought”
System-
I saw the expression you made when you said that. It was an expression of sarcastic and pity, I know you are not joking!
Hahaha…
System-
At least try to deny it!!!
…
But…….
I need to kill Five of these to complete my Quest.
I would rather die…...
But I think I should rest before that, my body isn´t in a great condition.
Fuck….
….
My Inner Qi is almost depleted if it cancels now, I will most likely die….
With all the blood and scratches and bite marks all over my body I started to wonder why I am not dead yet, but it was because of my skill “Inner Qi”, I need to start meditation now.
As I kneeled down, I noticed something…
Something bad…
How am I supposed to concentrate, when I am latterly kneeling in a blood of sea besides and dead wolf drained of all its Life power, that looks like a squashed avocado.
…
A while later after finding a place filled with trees full of avocados…
Huh I managed to calm down my Inner Qi for the while and healed the most severe injuries.
I should stop my Inner Qi from strengthen my now.
Huuuhhhh. My Muscles lighten up, and the moment that happened I felt something I never felt before.
“AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH.”
Now I felt all the pain and damages that was still inflicted on me….
…
So, my Skill not only strengthen me, but absorbs some of the damaged taken, which is released after stopping my skill Inner Qi….
“Sigh…I should probably distribute the stats I gained. “
System-
Stamina + 2
Endurance + 2
Cultivation + 4
Current Status window:
Lv – 7
Hp – 5
Strength -5
Stamina- 8
Endurance- 8
Magic – 0
Mind- 7
Unique Stat
Cultivation- Abyssal Arts -Foundation Establishment state - 10
Available Stats – 0
Abyss collected – 4
Skills- Inner Qi application
Your Cultivation has reached 10, your are now able to learn a new skill, Abyssal Nexus.
Abyssal Nexus-
* Abyss Manipulation
* …
* …
* …
* …
Abyss Manipulation… that sounds intimidating…
Anyhow I still need to hunt down at least four more Shadow Hounds, I better get going, I can´t wait to collect my hard-earned money!
There was someone watching the whole battle unfold from a distance.
A Person standing in a Tower, crumbling down, with a mantle in conveying the colors of darkness.
A smile unfolded on his face, showing his black teeth.
You have finally appeared before me, dear Brother.
End of chapter 4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------To be continued
Status window currently:
Lv – 7
Hp – 5
Strength -5
Stamina- 8
Endurance- 8
Magic – 0
Mind- 7
Unique Stat
Cultivation- Abyssal Arts -Foundation Establishment state - 10
Available Stats – 0
Abyss collected – 4
Skills-
Inner Qi application
Abyssal Nexus-
* Abyss Manipulation
* …
* …
* …
* …
Condition Overview-
Cleaning impurities 10%
Weak Body- training efficiency -80%
Illness- You have a serious illness
If not treated, you could die / In your current state there is
no cure for your illness.
Curse of the Abyss- You have been cursed by the God of the Abyss- you are more
likely to become evil.
Curse of the Dragon-???
Titles- First title gained “The Light within the Shadows “.
Gain – 10% more power when fighting against darkness.
Item Information-
Name-
The 10 Rings of the Abyss.
Skills-
Devour
Energy Outburst
???
???
Bound to you for life.
As your Abyssal Cultivation grows, you will unlock more Skills.
The use of this Item will make you more likely a Evil being.